In this article I will tell you how to search for a photo in social networks, and what we need for this. Imagine a situation: you have a photo of a person about whom you need to find all the available information. An invaluable help in the process of such a search can be provided by social networks, which often host the accounts of the people we need. They can contain a variety of information about a person, including his photos and videos, interests, hobbies, favorite books and films, and other data useful to us. But how can you find such a page with just a photo?
You can search for the right person on social networks in various ways (by first and last name, place of residence, geotagging, age, other relevant descriptors). If you already have a photograph of him, then you can turn to the capabilities of special network tools that can provide significant assistance in our search.
Some of these resources (for example, the popular “FindFace”) are specially “sharpened” for finding people in a certain network (in the case of “FindFace” it is the Russian “VK”). Others, at the level of Google and Yandex search engines, allow you to search for identical and similar images on many sites (including social networks), displaying the entire wealth of the results on the screen.
In some cases, it is required to prepare the necessary photo for searching on it (for example, using the template graphic editor ""). It is necessary to get rid of the presence of other people in the photo (if any), as well as remove other unnecessary details that could interfere with the search service in its work.
Consider ways to search for a person by their facial image on social networks.
FindFace - effective photo search using neural networks
In November 2015, the University of Washington organized the "The MegaFace Benchmark" competition, which was attended by over a hundred teams, including from Google and Facebook. The goal of the competition is to create the most effective face recognition algorithm that allows you to accurately select a similar face among many analogs.
Despite strong competition, the competition was won by the Russian company N-Tech.Lab. Its algorithm, based on the work of neural networks, provided the highest recognition accuracy among analogs - about 75% of all the results obtained.
- Later, this algorithm was embodied in the findface.ru service, which allows you to find the right person (or people similar to him) on the Vkontakte social network.
- At the same time, the mobile application of the same name is also available to users of the Android OS.
The "findface" service will allow you to quickly find the right person in VK
How to use Fifindface search
How does the specified service work? To work with him, first of all, you need to have a page in VK (if not, create one). Then do the following:
- Go to the website findface.ru;
- Click on the red button "Find the same";
- Allow the service to access your account by clicking on "Allow";
- Upload the photo you need for the search and wait until the end of the search procedure;
- Review your results.
Free features of the service are limited to a certain number of searches in the social network (usually a few dozen). For unlimited possibilities, developers will have to pay.
"Google Pictures" - with the ability to find a person by photo
The capabilities of the popular international search engine "Google" allow you to perform online image searches, including searching for a person's photograph in social networks. At the same time, the search engine displays both identical and similar results, with information on the found image (including the likely name and surname of the person in the photo).
To work with the service from Google, do the following:
"Yandex.Pictures" - will find anyone on a social network by a picture of a face
Search by pictures in social networks from the Yandex service is organized in a way similar to Google. To search, go to Yandex.Pictures or use to launch the service, click on the camera image on the right, upload the desired image to the resource (or provide a link to it on the network). Review your results.
You can also use a special Yandex tool that searches for people on social networks. Follow this link https://yandex.ru/people, enter the name and surname of the person you need in the search box, click on "Find", and view the result (usually a photo, link to a social profile, short information).
To search, go to "Yandex.Pictures", and click on the camera icon on the right
Alternative resources for finding people by image
Among other services that search for images in social. networks, I would also note the following resources:
Conclusion
Search by photo in social networks will help to perform the services listed by me above. Among the services mentioned, I recommend turning Special attention to the findface.ru service - the efficiency of its recognition is at a fairly high level, allowing you to quickly find the people you need on VK pages.
In contact with
Finding information on the web is not always an easy task. Especially if you have a minimum of data on what you need to find. An example of such a situation would be a picture search.
How to use Google Image Search:
- Step # 1. Open the Google Pictures page and click on the button in the form of a camera. This button is to the right of the search bar.
- Step # 2. After that, a small pop-up window should open. In the window that opens, indicate the link to the picture and click on the "Search" button. If you want to download a file from your computer, then click on the Download file link.
- Step # 3. After you have provided a link or downloaded a picture from your computer, you will be redirected to a page with search results. Please note that the image you were looking for appears in the search bar. Also, if necessary, you can refine the search by adding a text description of the picture.
Other services for image search
In addition to the Google search engine, there are other services for image search. One of these services is the website. Here, as in the previous case, you can upload a picture from your computer or specify its address. After that, the tineye.com service will search for the image and show the search results.
How to use image search in TinEye.com:
- Step # 1. Open the TinEye.com website, then upload the picture file from your computer or specify a link.
- Step # 2. After uploading an image or providing a link, you will be automatically taken to the search results page.
Search by image using a browser extension
There are also browser extensions that allow you to perform image searches much faster. For example, there is a Search by Image extension for Google Chrome. You can download it from the link. This extension allows you to start a picture search in the Goolge search engine in just a couple of clicks.
The Search by Image extension works very simply. You need to call the context menu by right-clicking on any picture and select "Search Google with this image". This will open a new search tab.
There is a similar extension for the tineye.com service. This extension is called "TinEye Reverse Image Search". It also works in exactly the same way. After installation, an item appears in the context menu that allows you to search by a picture in the Tineye service with one click.
And one more thing, don't forget to check out our pick of the best.
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Example: we have a photograph of a landscape, but we do not know what this beautiful place is:
As in the previous versions, we press the button in the form of a camera in the search bar, upload a photo and get the result:
I warn you - this does not always work. For a correct result, this photo or a very similar one should already be in the Google image search database, i.e. be on the Internet, there should also be a description next to the picture on the page. If the sights can be easily recognized (since a well-known place is “known” on the Internet), then with objects the chance of finding a description is almost zero.
If there is no information about the place, we will see a page with similar photos by analogy with the following example.
Previously, the TinEye search engine was strong in this, as I mentioned earlier. But Google Pictures is also not a bastard.
As before, open the Google image search, click the camera icon in the search bar and load (for example) a photo of a ginger kitten:
And click the link " Similar Images". Let me remind you: you can not upload a photo, but indicate its address on the Internet, or simply enter the query “ginger kitten” into the search, move the mouse over the photo and click “ Similar«.
In any case, these actions will lead to a search for similar photos:
Pay attention to the inscription "Similar" above the pictures. This means that this mode is working now. Clicking on the cross on the right will turn it off. Clicking on the picture will open, as it should, an enlarged copy in the background of the site where this picture is located.
Conclusion
Google image searches always work the same way. Depending on what was found, the search page changes. If the result is very successful, when it is possible to accurately identify the name of the photo and find information on it, we are redirected to the text search page (as in the case of searching for a sightseeing).
In fact, the search site tries to predict what we really need. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. There is virtually no difference between the above examples. The search always happens the same way, we just look at different places in the search and click on the links we need. I just gave the most "contrasting" examples, so you shouldn't look for the button "Find similar photos" or "Find a person by photo". There is none of them. The search is always one. It all depends only on what we are looking for.
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Example: we have a photograph of a landscape, but we do not know what this beautiful place is:
As in the previous versions, we press the button in the form of a camera in the search bar, upload a photo and get the result:
I warn you - this does not always work. For a correct result, this photo or a very similar one should already be in the Google image search database, i.e. be on the Internet, there should also be a description next to the picture on the page. If the sights can be easily recognized (since a well-known place is “known” on the Internet), then with objects the chance of finding a description is almost zero.
If there is no information about the place, we will see a page with similar photos by analogy with the following example.
Previously, the TinEye search engine was strong in this, as I mentioned earlier. But Google Pictures is also not a bastard.
As before, open the Google image search, click the camera icon in the search bar and load (for example) a photo of a ginger kitten:
And click the link " Similar Images". Let me remind you: you can not upload a photo, but indicate its address on the Internet, or simply enter the query “ginger kitten” into the search, move the mouse over the photo and click “ Similar«.
In any case, these actions will lead to a search for similar photos:
Pay attention to the inscription "Similar" above the pictures. This means that this mode is working now. Clicking on the cross on the right will turn it off. Clicking on the picture will open, as it should, an enlarged copy in the background of the site where this picture is located.
Conclusion
Google image searches always work the same way. Depending on what was found, the search page changes. If the result is very successful, when it is possible to accurately identify the name of the photo and find information on it, we are redirected to the text search page (as in the case of searching for a sightseeing).
In fact, the search site tries to predict what we really need. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. There is virtually no difference between the above examples. The search always happens the same way, we just look at different places in the search and click on the links we need. I just gave the most "contrasting" examples, so you shouldn't look for the button "Find similar photos" or "Find a person by photo". There is none of them. The search is always one. It all depends only on what we are looking for.
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Image search is an opportunity to find images on the Internet that best suit your query. Most search engines provide this opportunity, and it's just great. But if you already have a picture and want to find its original or something similar, this is called reverse search.
Reverse search works great on a desktop computer. Go to images.google.com, click on the camera icon and paste the URL of the picture into the search bar, or load an image from your computer's hard drive and Google finds everything right away.
But what if you need to find the original picture, and you only have your phone at hand? You will not be able to do this in the way described above, because there is no camera icon in the Chrome mobile browser, i.e. you will not be able to search for copies of pictures using the standard Google app. Completely different services come to the rescue, which we will now talk about.
Search on iPhone
Simple and effective iPhone app. There are several ways to select a picture, including downloading a file from the gallery on your phone, specifying a URL, or pasting from the clipboard.
Before uploading a picture, you can change it. For example, you can lower the resolution, thereby reducing the size of the downloaded file and, accordingly, the amount of data transmitted over the network. You can even crop to upload only a specific portion of the photo.
After uploading the image, the search results page will open. You can open found pages in Safari or Chrome, add them to the Reading List for later viewing, copy the URL to the clipboard, send them by email, and so on.
Reversee also has iOS extensions that can be used to invoke the program from Photos, Safari, Chrome, and any other application that supports image export.
The app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. When upgrading to the paid version, a number of additional functions will appear, including the ability to search at once by several search engines (Google, Bing, Yandex).
It takes a picture from a camera, gallery or cloud storage and gives out all possible information about this image and searches for identical or similar pictures on the network. If you have just arrived from Paris and want to learn more about the Eiffel Tower, feel free to upload the picture you have taken to Veracity and the application will give you tons of links to pages with pictures and descriptions of one of the most famous Parisian landmarks.
Search on Android
On Android, the Search By Image app provides almost the same functionality as Reversee for iOS. You can also take a picture in it and search for similar ones, you can take an image from your photo gallery or from a message on WhatsApp, Facebook and VKontakte.
Search By Image is even better at some tasks than Reversee. For example, with the definition of the originality of the photo or the date of creation of the file. Search By Image also searches for a portion of the image. This feature can be useful, for example, if you want to find the original snapshot of a part of a collage.
The imported image can be cropped or rotated before starting the search. Three search engines are used (at choice) - Google, TinEye and Yandex.
You can copy the address you want from the search results, open it in a browser, or transfer it to another application.
Image Search
Image Search is a simple and intuitive application that uses the Google engine to search for similar images. You can crop the desired portion before searching for copies. You can search multiple images at the same time and transfer them to other applications. The latest updates to Image Search have improved the user interface and introduced several new features, including background loading with notifications at the end of the download.
Search on any phone with a browser
If you can't find a suitable application for the mobile platform of your gadget and all you have is only a browser for mobile devices, try the Reverse Photos service, which is optimized for smartphones.
Using this service, you can upload images and search for identical or similar images using the Google algorithm. The tool is compatible with all modern mobile web browsers including Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
There is also an alternative use case for Google search. To do this, follow these steps sequentially:
- Launch a mobile browser on your smartphone.
- Go to www.google.com/ncr.
- Request the full version of the site in your browser.
- Go to the "Pictures" tab.
- Click on the camera icon.
- Select the required file and click the "Upload" button.
After completing the above steps, a window with search results will appear in front of you.
